A Question of Faith
by youronlyastory
Summary: Upon discovering a dark and decadent house after the TARDIS's crash landing, it's up to The Doctor and Rose to discover why they have been brought to this particular spot and more importantly, what is there to fear? With dread lurking around every corner, the question of faith and loyalty becomes evident. An adventure filled with courage, romance, humor and tales of the darkness
1. Prologue

**Hi, **

**This is my first story dealing with the whole idea of Gothic ideas or dark themes etc. It's not to be taken completely seriously as although that is _one_ of the themes, it should still be the natural Doctor and Rose story with that little bit of fluff and humour and also the side order of adventure.**

**If you're reading this then I sincerely hope you enjoy it, please let me know. I would love to know your opinions/words of advice. **

**Thank you very much!**

**Youronlystory x**

* * *

I cradled my broken arm cursing my clumsiness for not running fast enough. Though in all honesty my speed wasn't really to blame for the broken arm. Not even the Doctor was to blame for it.

* * *

"_Run!"_

"_What do you think I'm trying to do!" _

"_Quick! In that storage cupboard!"_

"_Great! Is there anywhere else I'd rather be then in an 18__th__ century boarding school in France chasing floating sting ray things just to hide in a dusty old storage cupboard?!"_

"_Rose?"_

"_What?"_

"_SHH!"_

_We had huddled into the cupboard, trapped and breathing heavily. I was pretty sure he would be able to feel my heart beat on his own chest but if he did, he was polite enough (for once!) to keep quiet. I had my back to the door. I was aching, I remember that, I felt drowsy like I didn't want to move and I also noticed I couldn't feel my right arm._

"_Rose?" His voice had trembled._

"_What?"_

"_Did it get you?"_

_My blood went cold._

"_No? We were miles away from it, how can it have got me?"_

"_Rose, don't panic…but I think you've been squirted"_

_I held my breath. He had spent the last half an hour explaining the dangers of its poison. It would coat the skin before being absorbed then it would start rushing about my blood stream numbing my organs till I became a zombified feeding plant._

"_How could I, I was right behind you and you were fine…."_

"_Look at your arm"_

_I didn't want to, I really didn't want to but he was staring at me. I let my eyes casually wave about my arm. I couldn't scream. My whole arm was throbbing, protruding large green veins running from the back of my hand upwards. I gasped._

"_I'm going to have to break your arm."_

* * *

The Doctor was currently fiddling with a small monitor, poking it and prodding it angrily. The guilt was painted across his face. He refused to look at me and it seemed this would happen until my arm was fixed. I tried to joke with him but he didn't laugh.

He didn't even smile.

"You had to break it." I reassured, hoping this might spark a bit of cheerfulness into him. Nada. It was true though, by breaking it, it would confuse the germs into thinking that I was decaying and why would they want a rotten dinner?

He nodded tightly.

"Anyway, it's not like it can't be fixed."

"I know."

I hated the TARDIS med bay. It was the constant reminder that I was just a human, I was just Rose Tyler and that although I was being looked after by my own special Doctor, I was fragile in comparison and soon enough, like he'd said before, I'd decay and die.

We were just hoping that we might be able to put this off until a few eighty years or so later.

"It's not your fault, Doctor."

"I never said it was." He said curtly, still bashing the white box and pulling wires from it to place on my arm.

"You're not looking at me."

"I don't want to hurt you, again."

"It didn't even hurt!" I whined desperately. He scoffed.

"You screamed."

"Human reflex." I answered naturally.

He rolled his eyes, still refusing to look at me. So I punched him. I didn't even think about it. I didn't pull back my arm. I didn't warn him. Just _**THWACK**_. Across the face. So that he stumbled away glaring at me in a mixture of disbelief and disgust.

"What was that for!" He squealed, rubbing his cheek. Least he was looking at me now. Or rather, glaring into my face.

"Now we're even!"

He raised an eyebrow and shook his head. Yet the corner of his mouth pulled up a bit. He sighed.

"Just like your mother." He joked, grinning widely.

"Now," he said, hand hovering over the machine. "This shouldn't hurt."

But before I could answer him, I was being thrown across the spinning room as the TARDIS crashed and threw us upside down.

I smashed into walls, using my broken harm to stop me and realizing too soon my mistake.

I couldn't see any of the things that were colliding with my back or my arms or my head. I could smell something burning, like a car radiator or melting plastic and groaned.

The Doctor was yelling something, trying to reach out to me but we were both tumbling into countless amounts of crap.

The TARDIS was trying to kill us.


	2. Chapter 1

The Doctor was tumbling too until we collided into each other only to be torn apart from gravity and pushed into the harsh cold metal wall of the Med Bay. The whole room was turning upside down as he tried to grab me, but was thrown away again.

I childishly screamed as I came crashing to the wall, the whole room was twisting around us, throwing us off course while he was trying to get us back to a safer part of the TARDIS.

"What's wrong?! What's happening?!" I yelled as a flashing red light and booming alarm ran through the TARDIS. He reached for my hand and pulled me with him into the corner of the room. We were still tumbling a bit and so was everything in the room but I was lot safer in his arms.

"I don't know, but we need to get to the control room!" He shouted over the crashing of more machines.

By the time the crashing and tumbling had subsided, we were both curled around the railing just before the very entrance of the wardrobe.

He was careful to judge the gravity with his own nervous footing.

"Right. Well…that was…"

"What the hell was that?!" I interrupted. My injured arm was still injured but was no longer the colour it had been before. It wasn't as badly cracked either and I'd hazard a guess to say it was only fractured but still fragile.

Which meant he must have started to heal it before he'd even turned on the machine. I didn't know whether I should have felt cheated or grateful, right now he seemed to busy to want my thank you's. Which overall made the experience less awkward.

"I have no idea but we've landed."

I pulled myself up as he frowned at the console.

"Should we go investigate?" I offered. He frowned again.

"Your arm's still not healed properly."

"So?"

"So you're in pain." He answered. "I can't take you out there if you're a risk to yourself."

"Risk to myself?!" I muttered hysterically. "Your machine has been battered into a million pieces, the only healing my arm needs is time! Literal time."

"Still." I stood next to him and gently wiggled my fingers.

"Completely fine…" I lied. He seemed to buy it but reached into the pocket of his coat and found an arm sling.

"I really should start leaving the appropriate things in my jacket pocket rather than my coat."

I laughed as he fixed it awkwardly behind my messed hair.

"Rose, the sonic can't even fix it…you'd literally be walking in there damaged."

"Less talking, more walking " I argued pushing him towards the door.

"Rose. I'm being serious."

"Good, so am I."

He shook his head, as if to say no but I laid my chin on his shoulder and gave him my largest gaze, battering my eyelashes a few times to help the persuasion.

Looping my hand across to hold his, I fluttered my eyelashes a few more times.

"Oh, come on then. But if we end up running again…"

"Together?" I offered.

He rolled his eyes. "Doctor's orders!"

I saluted, dragging him outside.

I was surprised to find it was dark. Really dark. A house was only a few feet away and was captured by several trees. It creaked against the wind but was still picturesque. It was massive, absolutely huge but seemed empty and broken.

"Wow….it's night."

He pulled down his mouth. "So it seems? Well, I think we should give it a while before we go travelling off. Give her some time to fix herself." He patted the box but it almost growled at him.

"Seems like we should go meet the neighbours…" He nodded his head towards the creepy Victorian house and began walking towards it. I ran to catch up with him.

"What are we going to say, vehicle broke down?"

We were barely on the wood chipped porch when a mother in her thirty's, dressed in an old nightie, hair in rollers answered the door.

"I-We can't help you." She whimpered ready to slam the door. The Doctor ran to stop her.

"Oh no, please. We're lost, we need directions." He said, trying to get closer.

"If you want to stay safe, you'll run." She warned and went to shut the door again.

The curiosity coated his voice. "What do you mean by that?..."

She tried closing the door but he pleaded.

"Oh, please. Look me and my friend; Rose, maybe we can help. We're good at helping." He pulled me up to stand next to him and smiled as if offering me up as a gift of trust.

The woman was completely pale apart from her dark eyes. She obviously hadn't slept in a while.

"It's after us…it won't leave us alone. No matter where we go…" she confided, her voice choking her own breathing. I had an urge to run away but felt sorry for her. She was shaking, she was tired and she was on the verge of a break down. She needed our help.

He frowned and stepped closer.

"We can help." He stated, offering his hand as an introduction.

"No one can help us." She said eerily and slammed the door shut.

It was a slap in the face by the draft as bits of chipped paint hit me in the face.

The wind was biting at my bare arms so that Goosebumps rose on them. I tried to hide the violent shiver but it didn't work.

He raised an eyebrow at me then starting to bang on the door, furiously.

"Please? My friend needs …the loo?" He gave me a bewildered look to see if this was a normal human excuse "We're completely lost; I'm begging you, not for me, for her." He pulled me into his side and rubbed the top of my arm, smiling awkwardly.

He rapped his knuckles on the door so it made an echoing noise.

"Please?" he shouted.

He seemed more surprised than I did when the door sneaked opened. She looked guilty to the floor.

"Top floor second to your left."

"Thank you!" I yelled, miming desperation as I hurried towards the bathroom.

I was already half expecting him to be talking to the parents once I returned downstairs but was even more confused to see a family of seven, including herself, swamping the living room of the house.

"Rose, this is Kareen Miller and her husband Richard."

I held out my hand to which only Richard shook.

I couldn't help it; my eyes fell to the children curled up on the floor. There were five of them, all girls, from the ages of around fifteen to five; all sweet with rosy cheeks, freckles and varying shades of hair. A motherly sensation was screaming at me to protect them as they huddled up to each other.

The Doctor tore a worried glance from my awkward sling and sat on the sofa.

"How can we help?" He said, leaning forward.

"We're being haunted…" Kareen trembled, her voice shaking in rhythm to her knees.

I tried not to be disbelieving. Haunted? What a blissful word, if only it _were_ haunted. They were usually only aliens. Or the Gelth. Never making that mistake again.

"Haunted?"

"Yes; haunted! Why you don't believe us?!" Richard hissed , standing over him in anger.

Kareen tried to pull her husband back to his seat.

When he next spoke, he was pleading: "Please. Our family needs help…"

The Doctor grinned. "We always help."

"How can you still be smiling? You still don't believe us, do you?!"

My knee stared shaking too as the Doctor widened his eyes.

"It's not that we don't believe you, it's just that we'll need to do a lot of tests before your suspicions are confirmed…"

"We do a lot of travelling, you see." I chimed in, feeling that I should be defending our situation rather than let him drown on his own. "We see a lot of things that turn out to be different from first expectations. We get rid of the rumours…"

"Rumour ridderers'" The Doctor added. I was hoping the side smile he shared with me was one of pride and not just agreement.

"Rumour ridder-ers." I repeated.

Kareen narrowed her dark eyes. "One night. You spend one night up there and then tell me it's a rumour…"

I couldn't help but let my eyes light up, all I wanted was to fall asleep, just to recover a little, recharge, reload.

Maybe a night in a creepy house would be nice.

"Is that an offer?"

Kareen didn't say anything, just looked to her sleeping children and let sobs take over her shoulders.

I instantly moved to comfort her one-armed.

"Hey, it's okay. We'll sort this…" I soothed, the tears streaked her face as exhaustion disallowed the coherent string of speech.

"It's after them. My children. My babies."

I swallowed the lump in my throat and continued to stroke her back.

"You say "it"?" The Doctor began, looking over to the cluster of girls as they breathed softly. "What makes you think "it" is after them?" She lifted a pointed hand to the foot of one of the middle children.

I couldn't help it, the gasp fell out before I even had chance to control it. The Doctor glared emotionless onto what Kareen was pointing at.

"Chloe, she woke up one night screaming, saying that something had grabbed her…" Kareen sobbed again and burrowed her face into my knotted hair.

Both I and the Doctor moved towards the girl. She was about thirteen at the most. She had short brown hair combed in an odd fashion but on her ankle was a large purple bruise the size of a male's fist.

He obviously couldn't help himself, throwing on his specs he looked closer at the girl's ankle barely covered by the aged nightie. Wow the family were old fashioned!

He lightly traced the outside of the bruise with the tip of his index finger. The girl woke up instantly and screamed.

"No-! No! It's fine. Don't worry. I'm here to help!"

Chloe continued to scream until her mum rushed to her side and smoothed her hair.

"Shhh. Shh, it's okay.."

The other girls promptly started to wake up, rubbing their eyes sleepily all in old nighties.

"Who are you?!" The youngest asked. She had large blue eyes and the sweetest frown, the other girls had enough sense to run to their parent's soothing words of comfort.

"We're here to help." I re-stated. "My name is Rose. Rose Tyler and this is the Doctor. Just the Doctor."

"Have you come to clean our house?" She asked in confusion. I was as equally confused. Did I look like a scrubber?!

Her mother answered before me. "Yes. They've come to get rid of "IT"." Her voice was a lot scarier now, plain, dull but threatening. Daring us that if we failed our mission we were to be destroyed. Or something along those lines, either way she was scaring me.

"Why are you dressed like that?" another girl of around seven asked me. She was a lot like her younger sister just she had long brown hair.

"Me? What do you mean?"

The Doctor suddenly breathed in understandingly and surveyed the room from his crouched position. He noticed the wall paper, the old brown wall paper, the ancient television the odd furniture.

"Rose…"He whispered, smiling to the family as they looked to me in confusion "We're in 1983".

"We're _WHAT_?!"

That was exciting!

The family weren't listening to our arguing, just watching us in fear.

"1983…We're in…yeah.." He caught the frown of the mother. "Anyway. Please continue Kareen."

She asked Chloe to prove the harsh bruise of her leg.

"It was in our room. Mine and Leann. It spoke…" Chloe's voice had hushed to a whisper. She seemed to trust us now; she was comfortable with her mum's sudden trust in us and had taken that as a sign to trust us, or rather him.

"What did it say?" The Doctor was leaning on the top of his feet now, unable to free the manic glee from his eyes.

"It said it wanted to kill my family…"

The whole room turned eerily silent before a door slammed shut behind me, blowing out the candles in the room with its draft. One of the girls (Leann I think) screamed. The shudder was trying to rip my shoulders apart.

The Doctor had jumped up and was pointing the whirring blue light of the sonic screwdriver around the room. I was offering a bit of support to the girls.

"It's come back!" One of them whimpered.

"It's going to kill us!" Chloe cried hiding against her mother and her sisters for comfort. They'd all shifted backwards.

"It's okay. You're safe." I couldn't help but look at him trying to hide all disbelief from my face. "You're all safe." I promised. Richard jumped right behind the Doctor.

The Doctor seemed to become aware that he'd given all of us a blank expression so turned to me and winked to ease the tension. "That's us. Rumour ridderers, right Rose?"

The youngest girl (the bravest of them) covered her face with a giggle.

"It's just wind." He said, sitting down near me so that he was to the same level as all the girls.

"That was no wind!" Richard muttered, standing to peer around the corridor of the living room door.

"Sure it was." He lied. The Doctor was ignoring me and instead held out his hand to the youngest. She shook it eagerly.

"My name's Evelyn." She said, catching the drift and smiling a toothless grin.

"Beautiful name," The Doctor complimented, grinning to Kareen who still clung to the shoulders of a shaking Chloe.

No one else offered their introduction. Evelyn rolled her eyes dramatically. "That's Chloe and Leann. They're twins!" She pointed to the girls.

"No way!" The Doctor scoffed, enjoying her excitement. It was clearly obvious the two were twins, they were the spitting image of one another except one of them had longer hair.

"Then there's Maria," she pointed to the girl a little older than her with the long hair "and Anita. We call her Annie though."

The Doctor continued to shake the hands of the girls who now studied him in curiosity rather than fear. I was glass.

"Well, now we are on first name basis I can let you into my plan."

The oldest, Anita, was still shaking whether from the cold or from fright, I didn't know. She was coldly pale and listened to the Doctor intently as if every word depended on her life.

"Me and Rose. Rose and I. We are going to investigate upstairs. Which room is it?"

Kareen answered. "The first to your right."

"Right-We're going to investigate-"

Feeling a little fed up of letting myself become a bit of a silent soul I chose to interrupt him. "What exactly are we looking for?"

"It'll find you." Chloe stated. Her brown eyes darted right through my own as if battling through every thought I had ever possessed. I shivered again.

"But what about if they die!" Evelyn burst in. Her excitement would have been a lot more appreciated had this sentence been whimpered. She seemed in hope of our death.

"They won't die!" Anita chided, she was staring at the Doctor and despite myself I felt a little protective.

Maria who had been totally silent since the slamming of the door, was pulling onto her mum's sleeve, hushing something about my arm.

"What? What is it?" I asked carefully.

"You're arm. It's injured." She stated in a small mouse voice.

"What does that mean?" The Doctor inquired for me. He was mirroring Evelyn's excitement.

"It means that if she survives tonight, that arm won't."

If that was supposed to scare me, it failed. I was completely calm as I muttered a disinterested "oh." Was it wrong to laugh out loud into the face of a melodramatic seven year old?

The Doctor had already stood up.

"Okay, well. I'm sure we'll be fine. We'll return with our results in the morning."

"At three thirty…"Richard mumbled, leaning on the fireplace watching us ready to leave.

He very good at moving around the place without being noticed. It was weird.

"What?"

"That's when it comes. Three thirty every morning."

A small breeze bit at my arms again despite being indoors. We both nodded and walked up the landing to the room.

"After you." He said politely, letting me lead the way just so he could give the five girls a small support of a grin.

"Three thirty, then." I offered as a goodbye.

The only thing I heard was Richard's mutter of "good luck".

The one thought I had has we left room was that the family were either ridiculously naive to be trusting us or desperate. Utterly and shamefully desperate and the doctor and I were the only ones to believe them, we were the only help. The only hope.


	3. Chapter 2

**I've deliberately tried to make this one both lighter and darker to create an opposing sense of faith. In both times of fear and joy, Rose questions herself and what she sees to be true.**

**But yeah, please tell me if you liked it, tell me if you don't. What I could improve on or maybe think about?**

**I'd love to hear your comments! Thanks**

**Allons-y!**

**Youronlyastory xx**

* * *

I couldn't help it. The moment I entered the room and saw the beds, I groaned in pure ecstasy.

The Doctor whipped round to give me an amused confusion but it didn't matter, I just let myself fall gently onto the covers, appreciating the softness of every fibre of the duvet. For once I was being the rude one and I was loving every second of it!

"Be careful of your arm," he warned.

I continued to moan gratefully to which he laughed at.

"Oh, this glorious bed!" I didn't know how pathetic it was of me to be making a 'sleep angel' as I stretched onto the covers.

Rolling his eyes he nosily looked through the room, picking up toys and things that caught his eye. It was clearly a girl's room and was lucky enough to smell of perfumes and kid make-up. I loved that smell. It smelt a lot more innocent than the stuff I painted onto my face day in day out.

It was quite silent for a while but he was nice enough to ruin it. "Are you okay?" He practically boomed at me. I was drifting off. The exhaustion of the day, the throbbing of my arm, I needed the sleep, deserved it.

Sleep was rare in the TARDIS. We never got the time. Not because of that. Pft! I wish! We were either adventuring or fixing things or talking. Normally I wasn't fazed but right now, at the suggestion of sleep, I had to have it! This evening's sleep was what I deserved but he couldn't seem to help but ruin it with his worried voice.

"Fine," I muttered sleepily.

The corner of the bed leant down as he sat on it. Well that blew all chances of sleep how could I lie here and sleep with him looking at me?! But I couldn't really complain, it was a nice reassurance having him nearer.

"Sure?"

"Yep" I lied.

"Tired?"

Obviously not? I was feeling too lazy to answer as he moved leaving me seconds of piece. Literally seconds.

"Are you comfortable?"

Rubbing my eyes I sat up. "What?"

"S'just. Your arm and that." He nodded towards my sling and continued to bounce on the bed further to the corner. He was feeling fidgety. Wow. For once I was the most responsible in the room...kinda.

"Oh." I looked down myself. There's no way I'd be able to sleep in this tempreture. It was freezing! Absolutely freezing! I couldn't feel my feet and I had only been here for about two hours.

"Ahh…Never thought of that…" I rolled over onto my back and curled up . It sounded like he was lying on the bed across the room, looking at the ceiling. The same way he did in New, New Earth.

It was silent as we awkwardly waited for the other to speak.

"Very trusting…" I stated after a while. I was too cold to sleep now, even despite deciding to sleep in the jeans.

"They're frightened. We're their last hope." His voice was soft as I saw it loose itself in the air above him, freezing as it did so.

"Do you think it is haunted?" I couldn't help but scoff a little and look round the room. I felt a lot more than happy when I heard his mutter of agreement.

"Nahh. Course not. Probably some reasonable explanation." I looked across to see him smiling. "You humans, always seeing patterns in things that aren't there."

My whole body was leaning toward system shutdown as I sleepily agreed.

"Be careful of your arm as you sleep." It didn't matter that his voice was comforting and soothing; it still threw me into the harsh world of wakefulness.

I shuddered and wrapped the covers tighter around myself. "Sleep?! D'you know how cold it is?! How am I going to sleep in this?!"

I laughed but was nearly pushed out of the bed as some force threw itself into me. I was about to scream when his nose accidently brushed against mine. Every muscle in my body was replaced with jelly.

He never did this. This was totally unlike him but here he was, pressed against me in an effort to warm me up by the addition of more body heat. It worked. I was melting against him.

"Hello," He said cheerily. I laughed in relief.

"God! You scared the life out of me!" We both laughed for a few more seconds until we found a comfortable spot beneath the covers sharing each-others warmth. I could see every freckle covering his face like a starry night, every small smile as he changed his gaze from looking at me to behind me then back to the ceiling.

I stop breathing as something hard rubbed against my ankle.

"Are you still wearing your trainers?"

"Yeah? Why?"

I grinned against him and laughed.

"Why?" he repeated again. "Are you not supposed to?"

"Not in bed…"

"Oh."

There was silence before I felt him laugh again causing the bed and me to shake a little.

"You're wearing trainers!" He criticised.

I blushed. "Yeah. So?"

Would this ever happen in the TARDIS? Now that it had happened once maybe there'd be another opportunity. Maybe I could pretend to feel really sick and he'd join for a snuggle. Wow, I'm desperate.

My laughter turned into another shiver against the air so he moved closer.

"Warmer?" He asked. I could literally feel every limb of his and to make it better, most of them were curled around me!

I think my ovaries have exploded.

"Thanks" There was another comfortable silence as we both allowed sleep to take over. I was reluctant to let it happen though, so cheekily shivered again. "How cold is it in here?!"

"Minus four, it's about ten past midnight meaning it's going to get colder before it gets warmer…statistically."

My body tried to shiver again but this time, he did something strange and captured it beneath his now warm hands so that it just vanished.

It was freezing, my toes inside my shoes were turning to ice and every so often a murmur of "brrrr" left my lips. This 'lovely' feeling could only be destroyed by the repetitious throb of my arm, which lucky enough had felt better than this afternoon but worse then just now with the family.

"How's your arm?" He must have been able to feel it.

I could feel his breath on my face and for some stupid reason felt the need to literally shift so that he were now laying intertwined…practically. If I was going to have this moment I was going to take advantage of it.

Surprisingly he didn't react badly to my insistent moving, in fact he practically allowed it, just letting us lie there, _together_, warm in each other's awkward tangle. Am I dreaming? Either that or I'm becoming delusional. Maybe I'm really in the TARDIS still; maybe the machine has given me some hallucinogenic drugs.

Judging by the temperature of the room, apparently not.

"My arm's fine…"

I felt him roll his eyes.

"I'm not squishing it, am I? I'm not squishing _you_?"

Even if you were I couldn't complain. In fact I'd probably encourage it. Squishing sounds good. I wouldn't mind some squishing. I crave it. Squish me!

"Nahh."

"Is that your knee?" He seemed insistent to keep up a string of conversation, I couldn't tell if this meant that for once he was slightly afraid or really he was feeling a little lonely despite the close contact. Either way, I didn't mind missing out on the sleep, if it allowed me this feeling of comfort then I encourage it whole heartedly.

It _was_ my knee and I felt humiliated because of it. I was well aware it was jittering excitedly into him and I was even more aware I couldn't control it.

"Yeah. Sorry."

"S'fine. You're probably cold."

I think we both knew this was a lame excuse but I was glad I could blame it.

"You should probably get some sleep." He uttered softly. I felt my eyes awaken in alarm

No! Don't make me sleep now! Now's the good part where you confess your undying love, I do the same and then we unfold in some passionate and loving snogging?! Maybe?

"Promise you won't disappear?" I blurted, ignoring the nod of his head in an apparent promise. Instead, I went to to grab the lapels of his jacket for effect but was left patting his chest in search of them. I would have been able to feel his laugh against my hands a lot less violently had the jacket been there but I couldn't seem to feel it.

"What are you doing?" He chuckled, grabbing my hand mid-pat.

"Where's your jacket?" I asked in shock.

"On the corner of the bed, why?"

"Why did you take it off?"

He never takes his jacket off, never. It was like a security threat. The coat came off, never the blazer!

"Even I don't know the amount of objects I've got in _those_ pockets. Didn't think you'd fancy being stabbed accidently during the night."

"Ahh, never know. Might brighten up this dull evening." I gave him my tongue in teeth grin as well as a wink, and vaguely saw the outline of a smirk hinting on his lips. We both knew I didn't mean it, the night wasn't dull (mainly because of this!) Yet we were both pretty much of edge, waiting for something to happen.

I shifted again.

"Goodnight, Rose."

What? What did I do? He wasn't going to sleep was he?

"But I was only-"

I was grateful and annoyed when he cut me off again, I needed the sleep and he was being kind enough to give it to me by pretending he was going to sleep too. "Good night Rose."

"Night." I sighed.

I wasn't really awake when it happened. I'd folded myself into the Doctor's own position without realising, cradling his warmth as well as his presence when suddenly I was thrown, literally _thrown_ across the room so that my face came into harsh contact with the wooden wardrobe in a _**thud.**_

My nose was bleeding.

I screamed (as you would) and tentatively touched my nose. Yep blood. But still. What the _**FUCK **_just happened. Taking a shaky breath, I looked into the dark trying to point out what had happened. Who had happened? If that was the /Doctor then he had some really crazy sub-conscience defense systems!

A breeze was following around my ankles as a smell of rotten food filled my nostrils.

Two cold hands grabbed my forehands and pulled me to my feet as another scream threatened to bubble up out of my throat.

"It's me!" He said in a hushed whisper. Elbowing him I crouched to my knees and took many, many deep breaths.

"I was fucking terrified! What did you do that for?!"

"You think I did that?!" He hissed angrily, he was really emphasizing the eyes he used when he was furious , terrified and a little hurt. He gently looked over my arm but seeing that other than a few new bruises and a bleeding forehead I was relatively okay, smiled in relief.

"Can you smell that?" I asked, showing a disgusted face as I tried to hunt it out from the room. I wasn't ready to count my blessings just yet.

"That is _vile_!" He had to cover his own face now and was too looking around the room cautiously.

"It's getting cold again…" This was an understatement, it had gone from the predicted 'minus four' to about minus four hundred. I was cold right through to the bones. My fingers had gone numb and so had odd parts of my muscles preventing me to move without a struggle.

The drift from around my ankles became a lot thicker but silky as it clung to them like hand cuffs. I could barely scream as I was tripped to the floor.

The Doctor ran to where I was and stood protectively over me, his hand on my thigh and the other one out to prevent the unknown from coming closer. I'd landed on my arm and was doing all I could to hold in the cry of pain as I held it in agony.

"Are you okay?!"He asked, his voice was shaky as he moved shiftily, questioning every darkened corner.

"Yeah," He didn't look at me when I answered. "I'm going to turn on the light"

I was shaking. I could feel fingertips tracing every inch of exposed skin. They were running along the nerves causing me to shiver violently and shut my eyes tightly.

I could barely see anything anyway. Every corner was dark, every movement was dark. Even where the moonlight should be illuminating was dark and out the window, in the true depths of the dark, a large oak tree was creaking.

The smell of rotten meat was burning my nose so that I longed for the perfume from earlier. My breathing was shallow, the hairs on the back of my neck were standing up and Goosebumps bruised my skin.

"Be careful,"

I couldn't be any more careful if I tried. I'd been gripping onto his hand as tightly as possible until I had to let go so as to turn on the light while he looked around the room. My hand was fumbling across the freezing wall, blistering at every touch until I found the light switch.

The light burned my eyes and when I tried to scream again, I found it was lost in the depths of my throat. In the corner of the room a minute flash of a young girl appeared across my sight. She was pure white, her hair dripping wet in the consistency of a back combed dead cat.

Her dark black hair was in streaks so that it showed a set of dark purple eyes glazed over in an expressionless gaze. I tried to throw myself back but the girl was suddenly at my feet, her broken teeth and dislocated jaw freshly smeared with a clotted blood red and as she smiled wickedly, she leant her head to the side. Her neck was broken. This wasn't happening. This is not real! It can't be!

The vomit tried to push its way along my throat as it bubbled in my stomach like poisoned acid. My ankles were being dug into with nails, screaming silently, I threw myself to the floor and starting to violently heave up my own blood.

The whole scenario took less than seconds, one moment I was switching on a light the next, I was contorting my body into stupid shapes as I tried to heave out all the blood from my tummy.

I caught my reflection in the pool of vomited blood and staring back at me was the girl with the broken neck.

Suddenly, my neck was thrown backwards as I being to gurgle helplessly in my own blood. I was being chocked.

"Rose!" He screamed. Rushing to the pool of blood and trying to get me out of the rigid stone of bones. I was frozen into this position, literally. Every part of me had tensed up and locked. I was choking on my own blood.

"Rose?! C'MON! ROSE!"

I could feel him trying to rub my back, trying to force the blood out of my mouth before I chocked on it. It wouldn't happen. I was choking to death and he couldn't save me.


	4. Chapter 3

The grandfather clock from down stairs chimed four times. The first chime allowed the gushing blood to splutter out from my throat onto the wooden varnished floor around us.

The Doctor had one hand on my waist, the other on my shoulder, trying desperately to rid myself of the blood without writhing into a dangerous shape which I wouldn't be able to get out of.

By the second chime my whole posture relaxed, I was no longer breaking my back trying to grasp what little air I could. I had free movement of all my limbs, my body wasn't locked or contorted into frightening angles. I'd gained control of it.

Inhaling deeply, I spluttered the remains of my stomach and started to allow myself the right to fall against the floor in a heap. The Doctor was still holding onto me.

At the third chime, the room turned back to its normal room temperature, allowing my cheeks to flush and my fingers and toes to regain their feeling as I wriggled them.

The morning outside was gradually getting lighter but not light enough to call it dawn. My shoulders heaved, shadowing the warmth as a jacket was pulled onto my jacket giving me another layer of insulation.

The final chime was lost in the sound of the front door opening and slamming shut with such force that the whole house shook. Gulping down the cold air, I allowed my lungs to expand and indulge in the glorious feeling of breathing.

"Rose!"

I stole raspy breaths and let myself fall into the pool of my own blood in exhaustion. It was cold and wet and coated my face eagerly.

"Are you okay?! Rose?!" Was it wrong to feel comforted by his fear? I didn't want to move but I liked the idea of him fussing over me. In all honesty, I was just as terrified as before just the feelings of exhaustion had taken over the feeling of fear in rank of importance.

He pulled me up gently and went to pull the sticky lot of blonde-to-red painted hair from my face but ended up running his fingers through it as if it had been newly washed. The whole bottom of my mouth, previously coated with blood, was now only covered with the lack of the thick liquid and instead; bruises, running along my jaw from where I had fallen and thrown myself from one wall to the other.

The pool of blood from around my knees was gone, my clothes were rumpled but completely unstained while my throat was still sore as if I'd chucked up the equivalent of several pints of blood. This had happened! Limp in his arms, I closed my eyes and allowed myself to a moments silence by calming my breathing.

He was already pulling me into what I first thought to be a cuddle but turned out to be a kind of cradling. Groaning at himself, he heaved the both of us up so that I was now lying in his arms like a bundle of trashed human and took the steps downstairs.

The girls were already screaming and burying their faces into one another before we came into sight. If I was brave enough or had the energy I might have given them a smile or slight hand wave but instead I was being dropped onto the couch.

"Rose? Are you okay?"

The family had turned to clumber around me in a new interest but I could feel the rising tensions of Richard and The Doctor.

"Uh-huh…" I managed; coughing up what I thought to be blood yet was only phlegm.

"Your arm, it's broken in three places rather than just the one." His hand held my good hand which now had been blistered from tip of the middle finger down the inside of my wrist like a violent river.

"Guessed…"

"What is it? Is she okay?!" I heard Maria mutter. I had a feeling she still was clinging onto her mother. I couldn't see for myself. I had already closed my eyes.

"I'm sorry; I should never have suggested we stay here. I'm so, so sorry." His hand gripped tighter as a few strands of spiky hair tickled my face.

"Doctor, its fine. I'm fine." I was obviously lying. I was shaking from top to bottom, my breathing had gone crazy and all I wanted to do was hide in my own mother's arms.

Fat chance of that happening.

"Rose! You were chocking on your own blood! I need to get you help!" he yelled.

This was frightening. He never asked for help before, never, he _was_ the help but now here was; standing in front of me, truly paled with fear. I couldn't help but just feel a little overwhelmed by his stance. His deep brown eyes were gradually fading into a dark consistency, his hands were flexing beneath the pockets of his pinstriped suit. The long strands of hair had turned into an array of flamboyance suggesting that during the madness he had ran his hands threw it in exasperation a few times. Worst of all, the smile had gone. This was the face he used when he felt sorry for me.

I didn't want his pity. No, I didn't need it!

"Phone line's dead…"Kareen muttered.

I was pretty sure she was standing over me as she said this, lending me a kind of honoury motherly support like she'd given to her own children. Only Evelyn with her flowered cheeks was the brave one as she patted my hand.

I didn't need her support either. Though I couldn't turn away now, the physical trust was a sign to her sisters that I was okay. At least it should have been.

"There's someone in our basement." She stated, matter of fact-ly. Chloe pointlessly screamed for her to shut up and threw her hands over her ears, rocking on the bottom of her spine in an unsettling manner.

It seemed like me and Chloe were the only ones who heard. Raising an eyebrow I patted the top of her hand.

"What do you mean its dead?!" He roared, angrily.

Richard stood up. "I don't know. It doesn't work. As soon as we moved here, every appliance stopped working!"

"Okay then so let's go get help ourselves. You've got a car. Drive us to the nearest Doctor's surgery!" The Doctor ordered, squaring up to him as much as he was being squared up to. It was almost comical to hear him mention a doctor's surgery.

"I can't do that!"

"Oh? Why not?!" This was his 'Try and stop me voice' but every time I heard it, I hated it intensely.

"You can't leave. Not anymore…You're trapped in the house like the rest of us!" Richard wasn't looking at him now; instead he was looking at me. I sat up and gulped.

There was the background noise of a dripping tap and the delicate noise of a gently drumming of fingers along wood. I neither flinched nor feared the noise. I ignored it.

"What are you on about trapped?!" The Doctor scoffed.

"Surely you should have backup, anyway!"

"Back-up?What back up!"

"You're spirit hunters aren't you?"

I briefly let my gaze fall on the Doctor. He'd clamped his mouth shut looking as if he wanted to say no but changed his mind. He frowned at me then breathed deeply and nodded in defeat.

"Yeah, we are... But it's just the two of us. So what do you mean trapped?" He was calmer now, and that made me feel a little better.

Evelyn moved closer to me so that she was sitting just above my head.

"Are you okay?" She whispered. She looked over to her mum trying to comfort Chloe and then back to me. I sat up properly, rolled my shoulders and smoothed down my clothes with one arm. My right arm throbbed.

"Yeah, I'm great! You?" Great was a really bad word to use but she was a kid and I wanted to be brave.

"Chloe's scared…" She whispered.

"Well here's what I know about us hum-People. As people we're scared of the unknown. You understand?"

"But I'm not as afraid of Chloe." She muttered defensively. I grinned .

"But that's because you're young. I mean-. Well, you're really brave and so's Chloe but in different ways. So you might be afraid of spiders but she might not be? Yeah?"

Evelyn shook her head. "She's afraid of spiders too."

I smiled and patted her hand. "All you've got to remember is to be the brave little sister. Try making them laugh or something."

She nodded enthusiastically. We were distracted by her father and the Doctor throwing arguments at each other.

"You can't do that!" Richard was shouting.

"Just watch me!" And with that the Doctor marched towards the front door and pulled it open. Richard and I who had followed stared in shock.

"But it had been locked. It's been locked since it started."

The Doctor grabbed my hand. "Don't panic, we're going to the TARDIS first then we'll go to a hospital-"

I dropped his hand. "We're not going to a hospital! It's like four in the morning. These children are terrified! We can't just leave them!"

"We're not leaving! First we're going to go see if the TARDIS has got anything useful then we're going to the hospital to check you over."

"I'm fine."

Lies. My throat was making my voice go all raw and harsh. My arm now had turned purple. I was limping. My nose was bruised and to make it worse I was struggling to look at the Doctor without seeing a double.

"Clearly." He muttered.

The girls had now rushed behind me and Kareen was holding onto her husband, trying not to cry. I felt Evelyn's small hand in mine.

"I'm not leaving them." I promised.

"We'll be coming back."

"Listen to me, whatever ever happened just now was absolutely terrifying. I'm not lying when I say I'm shaking. But if I'm feeling like this now can you imagine how this family feels!"

"Rose, I'm trying to help, we're a team! How can we possibly look after this family when you're already in pieces."

"I'm fine."I repeated.

"You were chucking up the equivalent of your body's liquid in blood! You were swamped by it and now-"

"Was I?" I muttered sarcastically.

He groaned and slammed the door shut so that the breeze raced to the back of the house. Two of the girls jumped.

"Shall we go back to the living room?" I suggested openly, though I kept my eyes on his brown orbs. He nodded and inhaled thickly, keeping his eyes on me as we walked through to the living room and clustered together in a dismembered circle.

"Right, so I'm thinking we compare notes?" I grinned despite my lack of energy and waited for the Doctor's approval. He was a in a bit of a sulk with me but this seemed to revive him a bit.

"What was that alarmed you about the house?" He said to Chloe. She was shaking from the cold and looked at him from under her lashes but she was calmer.

"It was cold though it was summer."

"Hey, in the summer it gets darker later." I stated, the Doctor nodded slowly. "Do you think that could mean it's allergic to the light or something?"

"Not a bad idea but in the summer it starts getting light around four in the morning."

"So?" I asked.

"Well, look outside."

It was past four, probably around half past but outside it was still pitch black. The curtains flapped around as if the bottom of the window had been left open but it hadn't and outside there was no light, no stars, no moon. Just the darkness.

I shivered.

"It might just be tonight. Might be clouds covering the sky."

"There aren't any clouds."

"There's hardly ever been stars!" Anita chimed in. "I can't remember seeing stars since we've been here."

"But I saw the moon. I saw it, Doctor. I remember it because it wasn't as bright as it would usually be."

He shuffled his hand through his hair.

"Don't forget though you also saw yourself heave up several pints of blood…"

I thought for a moment. "So it's messing with our sight?"

"Perhaps. Chloe, what else did you see?"

Somewhere in the back of my head I had a niggling feeling. There was something else I saw, something important. What was it? It was something I was meant to tell the Doctor about, something vital.

Chloe continued to repeat about similar events, about the hand on her ankles, about the smell about seeing the moon but then not seeing it. All the while I was trying to pull the thought from my mind. What had I seen?

"What are you going to do?" Kareen said eventually, she was stroking Leann's hair gently for her own benefit it seemed rather than Leann's.

"Me?" The Doctor questioned. The excitement seemed to come back now. It had gradually gotten light as Chloe's story went on and this seemed to spur him on. He was determined it seemed and not an angry sort of determined, an arrogant one. He turned to me and flashed a smile but it was a smile I didn't recognise.

"Me and Rose are going ghost hunting!"

I snapped round to look him squarely in the face. He could see my expression, excitement with that glaze of fear.

"Unless you wanna' stay here with the girls and me and Richard'll go down."

Richard seemed more against this then me. He skin went a ghostly pale and his jaw dropped open, Evelyn patted his hand reassuringly.

"Down? Where we going?" I asked.

The Doctor absent minded stroked my purple arm then rolled his shoulders so he could look at Evelyn and address me. He raised a cocky eyebrow but smiled gently at her. She studied him carefully.

"The basement."


End file.
